Church of England bishops opposed to Nigel Farage’s plan to deport illegal immigrants probably are speaking for most of the people associated with their dioceses. But they should not think that they are speaking for the British public.
No polling organisation has yet done a survey of C of E attenders’ views on the Reform UK leader’s plan to combat illegal immigration. But a YouGov poll in 2022 of C of E members’ views on same-sex marriage, showing a majority in favour, indicates that the national Church is now a largely left-wing institution.
At his press conference in Oxford on 26 August when Farage announced his plan to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants in the five years of a Reform government, a Daily Mirror reporter asked him how he would react if his proposals to return asylum seekers to countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Eritrea were strongly criticised by Christian leaders.
Farage said: “Whoever the Christian leaders are at any given point in time, I think over the last decades quite a few of them have been rather out of touch, perhaps with their own flock. Given the types of people appointed to be the Archbishop of Canterbury, that is probably the biggest understatement of the day.”
Because of the mainly left-wing middle-class composition of their dioceses, C of E leaders such as the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, and the Bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, who have spoken out against Farage’s plan, probably are in touch with their own ‘flocks’ on this issue.
On 28 August Croft issued a strongly-worded open letter to Farage denouncing his plan. Croft wrote on his blog: “I heard no compassion in what you said for those who are at risk from people traffickers; those who fled for their lives; those who long for sanctuary and safety; the vulnerable who would be forcibly deported.
“The British people, as I understand them, want public policies founded on the deeply British and Christian values of compassion and care for those in need.”
Croft drew applause from C of E liberals. General Synod member and leading campaigner for same-sex marriage acceptance in the Church, the Rev Charlie Baczyk-Bell, said on X that he was “very grateful to the Bishop of Oxford” for telling Farage: “Most of all, I disagree profoundly with your attempts to politicise the questions of migration and asylum by deliberately increasing fear of the stranger in our communities.”
Croft’s diocese covers Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. There are around 55,000 people associated with churches and chaplaincies in Croft’s diocese out of a population across the three counties of 2.1 million.
In his overwhelmingly liberal middle-class diocese in the South of England, Croft almost certainly is speaking for most Anglican churchgoers in opposing Farage’s policy, but how can he claim to speak for the British people on a political issue?
In the 2024 General Election four million people voted for Reform UK, giving Farage’s party a 14 per cent share of the vote. But a poll in August by BMG Research gave Reform 35 per cent of the vote, a 15-point lead over Labour. “If repeated at an election, it would deliver {Reform} a landslide majority of more than 400 seats {in the House of Commons}, leaving Labour with fewer than 100 and the Conservatives close to being wiped out completely,” BMG said.
As evidenced by its parliamentary by-election victory over Labour in Runcorn and Helsby in May, Reform is doing better in attracting working class people than the C of E. Speaking on Times Radio this week, leading political commentator Andrew Neil said: “Reform is the working-class party now. Reform is far more working class than the Labour Party now…At the moment we are heading for a historic realignment.”
Last May the C of E announced its preliminary attendance figures for 2024. The press release put an optimistic spin on the numbers:
“The overall number of regular worshippers across the Church of England’s congregations grew to 1.02 million in 2024, a rise of 1.2 per cent, according to an early snapshot of the annual Statistics for Mission findings. It was the second year in a row in which the Church of England’s ‘worshipping community’ - the combined number of regular members of local congregations - has stood above a million since the Covid-19 pandemic."
However positively the national Church presents its figures, four million people voted for Reform in 2024 compared to the one million the C of E had in its ‘worshipping community’. On this comparison alone, is it not presumptuous of C of E bishops to claim to speak politically for the British public?
Rather than lecturing politicians, how about setting an example to their flocks in bold proclamation of the biblical gospel of eternal salvation from sin and death through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for people of all races, cultures and backgrounds?
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.
